WEST Somerset residents are being encouraged to help protect vital local services - by recycling as much of their rubbish as possible in kerbside collections.

Bottles, jars, paper and tins can all be converted into hard cash for West Somerset Council, which receives a special recycling credit from Somerset County Council for ever tonne of recycling collected in the district.

But the £51 credit is only paid for recycled items collected outside people's homes. Items taken to household recycling centres do not count.

Last year, the district council received £165,905 in recycling credits and both collection chiefs and local councillors are keen for residents to keep doing their bit.

Steve Read, the managing director of the Somerset Waste Partnership, said kerbside recycling rates were dropping in the district and he was eager to keep people recycling.

As well as helping to protect local services by drumming up cash for the council, food waste, in particular, was helping to generate electricity at the new anaerobic waste-to-energy digester near Bridgwater.

"Food collections across the county are slightly down on what we were collecting a couple of years ago.

"It could be recessional, it could be people are not able to afford to use the recyclable bags to put in the containers . . . one problem is the 'yuck' factor.

"Some people have no problem scraping their plates, but for others it take a lot more effort," Mr Read told Monday's district council scrutiny meeting.

He said people could use newspaper to wrap up food waste and did not have to buy biodegradable bags for their containers.

Cllr Mandy Chilcott said she believed many people assumed their food waste would be going to landfill alongside their general rubbish and said it was important to let them know it was being used to generate green electricity instead.

Mr Read said recycling rates on the whole were "struggling" across England as sales of newspapers and magazines were down and many products were now being put in thinner, lighter packaging.

He said all recyclables were paid for and sold based on their weight, so while less packaging had to be welcomed, it did have a knock-on effect.

"A Britvic bottle used to weigh 28g, now it's 21g so we have to collect four of them to get the same weight as we used to for three," Mr Read said.

Last year, 3,5495 tonnes of recycling was collected from West Somerset doorsteps and Mr Read said he was hoping people could be encouraged to do even more.

But councillors said there was still some confusion over what could or could not be left in kerbside collection boxes.

Cllr Chilcott said refuse collectors had, in the past, refused to take empty shampoo bottles, while other plastics, such as Tetrapaks could still not be recycled.

Mr Read said trials were being carried out in Taunton to see if the range of kerbside recyclables could be extended and added: "The general rule is - if it's a bottle, we'll take it."

He said collectors would take all sorts of shampoo, washing-up and detergent bottles, from the ones in clear plastic casings, to the "jazz" plastics in a rainbow of colours.

Cllr Kate Kravis suggested stickers should be put on bins to explain to people how much the service was costing and how much could be raised by recycling.

"People need to know that if they put it out, Somerset County Council will pay a credit to West Somerset Council so it is in West Somerset's interest to use the kerbside collection," Mr Read said.

The credits are paid by the county council to reimburse district authorities for handling waste that would otherwise have to be taken to county-run household recycling centres.